MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.

8/1 Garza’s injury turns teams off

The Cubs weren’t able to explore the trade market for pitcher Matt Garza because the pitcher was injured. Garza has not pitched since July 21 because of cramping in his right elbow. An MRI was clean, but that wasn’t enough.

“A healthy Matt Garza would’ve been a very sought after player at the deadline,” Theo Epstein said. “You never want to see one of your guys get hurt, but the timing was bad because we didn’t get a chance to fully explore that opportunity. Whether we would’ve done something or not is hard to say. When a buying teams’ last scouting report is seeing a guy walk off the mound holding his elbow, it’s not the type of thing they want to act upon.”

The Cubs and Garza’s representatives had discussed a contract extension in Spring Training, but nothing since.

“Everything’s still in play,” Epstein said. “We did have talks earlier in the season and they didn’t come to fruition. When that type of thing happens, you have to be open minded about moving a player but certainly there’s a time and place to address an extension again.”

This talk about Soriano being traded in August, is just that….talk. Soriano has to approve any trade, even through waiver deals. Soriano could clear waivers, and the Cubs would still have to pay about 90% of Soriano’s pay to get a low A class player from a team that can use him for the playoffs. I be shocked if Theo can pull off a Soriano deal this month. Look for more of a Jeff Baker deal to happen.

On a waiver deal don’t the Cubs have the option of taking a trade or giving over his contract? Would the Dodgers really take that risk of having to pay all 36 mil for two years for an outfielder who’s past his prime? It would be nice, but I think that if Soriano wants to stay part of the show after 2014 he needs to find a ‘help wanted’ sign for a DH spot.

no he probably would CLEAR waivers… meaning no one claims his contract and then that would allow the FO to talk with ANY team about a trade…. at that point the Cubs would be eating a big chunk of his salary

Who’s expecting we getting any value and not pay most of Soriano’s contract anyway? If we trade him it will only because Hoysein wants to make room for a better outfield not necessarily to get great value in return. If we don’t trade him it’s just gong to put pressure on Sveum to keep up the facade.

Meta

The following are trademarks or service marks of Major League Baseball entities and may be used only with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. or the relevant Major League Baseball entity: Major League, Major League Baseball, MLB, the silhouetted batter logo, World Series, National League, American League, Division Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the names, nicknames, logos, uniform designs, color combinations, and slogans designating the Major League Baseball clubs and entities, and their respective mascots, events and exhibitions.